Page 12 of Broken Pieces
It’s not like him to be asleep this early.
If he is in there, I wonder what he could be doing all by himself in the quiet.
Maybe he’s touching himself. I’ve caught him before, his back to the door as he stroked himself. I shouldn’t have stood there and watched. Ireallyshouldn’t have wanted to go in and help him finish.
God, Violet, you have got to stop thinking about that.
It’s deranged.
Max’s room isalso silent as I pass. When he’s not with his baseball team he’s either at the gym or sleeping.
My mom and Reginald are both out tonight so I don't have to worry about being caught by them as I sneak downstairs.
I'm sure Reginald's staying late at the office again. My mom on the other hand is most likely out with someone else behind his back.
Just like always, she’s messing this relationship up. She lasted almost a year this time until she started cheating, that's more restraint than she's ever had before.
I told Max and Maddox as soon as I realized what she was doing and they didn’t blame me for it like I thought they might do.
We decided to keep it a secret and not tell their dad incase that meant they’d divorce and we’d be torn apart.
Reginald deserves someone better than my mom though and I feel guilty about that every time I look at him.
What I've heard about Maddox and Max's mom is that she was the sweetest person. She died of cancer when they were only four and this is the first time Reginald's settled down since then. He met my mom online and I don't know how she reeled him in so quickly, but barely a year later we'd moved in.
When I step out the front door, I softly close it behind me and as I step down onto the driveway I hear the sound of tools tinkering in the garage.
There’s only one person that works in there.
As quietly as I can on the gravel courtyard, I tiptoe towards the open garage door andpeer inside.
Maddox is hunched over the hood of his car as he works on it,shirtless.I stare at the shadows dancing on his back as his muscles move under the soft yellow light of the bulb hanging above him.
I’m tempted to corner him like this. I could sneak up and make sure he can’t avoid me this time. Force him to tell me what’s really going on with him and Max. Find out why they suddenly don’t want me.
But what’s the point?
Our relationship was destined to be pulled apart. I just didn’t know it would hurt quite this much.
Once I’m on the street, part of me wants to go straight back inside, see if Maddox will hang out with me if I bribe him with wine or if Max will let me sleep in his room again. But that makes me feel desperate and I don’t want to make a fool of myself any more.
An uneasy feeling settles in my chest, the further I get away from the house.
It’s like there’s a pull, telling me to go back to them, to stay with them forever.
How can I, when they don’t even want me?
I’m the one with the unhealthy obsession with them, it’s for the best that I go cold turkey, cut myself off from them before it’s too late and someone gets hurt.
“Don’t look so glum.” Chloe gets up from her boyfriend's lap on the armchair opposite me and I can barely hear her over the thumping drum and bass playing throughout the house.
If it wasn’t for the alcohol clouding my judgment and the need to be anywhere but at home, I would have left hours ago.
She passes me an almost overflowing cup of something that smells like it’s got more alcohol in than I’ve consumed in my whole life and I take it.
Ignoring the way my stomach churns at the smell, I drink half of it in one go. Chloe cheers me on then a hand holds the cup to my mouth, forcing me to finish the whole thing and making me almost choke. I gasp for breath as it empties, and the hand comes to rest on my back.
“Didn’t know you could drink like that,” a guy says quietly in my ear.